Fighting Fate
by yeoyema
Summary: How is Seto Kaiba supposed to change his fate when he doesn't believe in fate? Knowledge of Spiral is not required to understand the story.


hnI still have another story but this one also wanted to get out. Since this was a Kaiba brother-centric story, I decided to put it up. Since most people wouldn't have read Spiral, I'm going to try to introduce the Spiral part of the crossover slowly, like the anime does (which is the verse I'm using for Spiral).

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**Chapter 1: Enemy**

Mokuba was missing.

It was this fact which caused Seto Kaiba to stand near the docks of Domino City, gazing at his brother's cell phone. It had been hidden near a warehouse, sheltered from the salty water only a few yards off. Mokuba's duel monster locket rested a few feet off to the right. Seto looked around, found nothing, and wondered what to do from there.

He knew who kidnapped his brother. Students and teacher alike had seen the Kaiba brother's chauffeur, Toru Takaki, pick Mokuba up from school. The problem lay in locating his wayward employee and little brother. That should have been a simple enough task. Mokuba's locket contained a tracer that even the Kaiba Corp. employees didn't know about. To most people, it was a harmless accessory. Even the limo that picked Mokuba up was found, abandoned and devoid of clues. Without the locket, Seto didn't know how to find his brother.

Seto's phone rang. Instinctively, he answered it. "Seto Kaiba."

"Are you confused, Kaiba?" Seto's eyes narrowed as he recognized the Takaki's smug voice. The laughter in Takaki's words but Seto refused to let his pride endanger his chances of finding Mokuba.

"Why did you kidnap my brother?"

"I'm sure you have your guesses, _Nakano_."

Seto's fingers tightened around his phone. Once, before Gozaburo, he had been Seto Nakano but those days had long past. No one was supposed to know that name. "What are you talking about?"

"You like games, right?" Takaki continued as though Seto hadn't spoken, "How about you play a game with me. Win and you get your brother back."

"What is the game?" Takaki had made a mistake in suggesting a game. In other to play, the other man would have to be in the same room as Seto. Once the game was over and Seto had his brother back, Takaki would regret having ever seen the Kaiba brothers.

Those thoughts made it easier for Seto to tolerate Takaki's arrogance. "Come to warehouse 13. I trust you know where that is." Seto's phone beeped, telling him that Takaki had hung up. Slowly, Seto lowered his own phone.

Seto walked quickly, eager to reach Mokuba. Any thoughts of his old name were put aside and replaced with thoughts of rescuing his brother. Takaki had indicated that he was in the warehouse which meant that was probably where the game would be played.

The warehouse quickly came into view. Seto opened the door and prepared to confront Takaki.

Takaki wasn't in the room. Instead, Seto saw Mokuba struggling to reach the windows by climbing onto cardboard boxes.

"Mokuba!" Seto called. The younger Kaiba brother twisted around in surprise, unbalancing himself and falling to the floor.

"Ow," Mokuba moaned.

Seto examined the warehouse. There were no signs of tampering. How was this a game? What was the point of kidnapping Mokuba, only to return him?

Once again, Seto's phone rang. "Are you going to explain the game?"

"Game?" Mokuba mouthed from across the room, having recovered from his fall.

"Mr. Kaiba. I'm not doing this because I have a grudge against you or because I want money." For the first time there was no amusement in Takaki's voice. Instead, Seto heard weariness and guilt.

"Then why are you doing this?"

Mokuba's eyes widened. "Seto!" He yelled and ran towards his older brother.

Once instant, Mokuba was pushing him and the next, something lodged itself inside his shoulder. He barely felt it. One moment on the phone. The next, he fell and the room started darkening around him. He could feel Mokuba reaching for the phone and hear his brother desperately calling his name.

_I'm okay_, he wanted to reassure Mokuba. But his mouth wouldn't work and soon he sank into darkness.

* * *

Mokuba had never been more grateful to hear the ambulance arrive. While Seto had thrown himself in harms way countless times for Mokuba's sake, the young teen had never seen his brother shot before. In some ways, Seto had seemed invincible.

Paramedics administered what aid they could as they bundled Seto onto the ambulance. They questioned him and Mokuba told them what little he knew before he followed Seto.

At the hospital, Seto was rushed of and Mokuba was shown to a waiting room. He turned on a television nearby and started watching the first cartoon show he found. It would wile away the time while he waited for the doctors to finish with his brother. Even so, he had a difficult time concentrating on the show. He kept thinking about the warehouse Takaki lured his brother to.

Why had Takaki shot Seto?

Mokuba was half-tempted to call Roland and demand that he brought a laptop for Mokuba to work on. But it seemed more important to wait for Seto to recover. The Kaiba brothers had always worked best together. Instead, Mokuba turned off the television and called key employees at Kaiba Corp. The company would not suffer from this if Mokuba had anything to say about it.

Yugi and his friend arrived while Mokuba and Roland discussed how to best assure shareholders that Kaiba Corp would not suffer while the CEO was incapacitated. They waited patiently off to the side for Mokuba to finish.

"Hey guys." Mokuba greeted, "I suppose it's all over the news?"

They nodded.

"It's not every day a CEO's employee goes crazy and shoots his boss," Joey said.

Téa immediately whacked him with her handbag and hissed, "Can't you be a little more sensitive?" She glared at Tristan who looked dangerously close to sniggering before finally focusing on Mokuba. "Have they caught his attacker yet?"

"Not yet but now that the police know who he is, it's only a matter of time." Mokuba said confidently. "If you want to see Seto, you'll have to wait a while. The doctors haven't finished with him yet."

"Thanks." Yugi said.

The group followed Mokuba to the television. It was far easier to pass the time with four people there. He ended up playing 'Go Fish' with Tristan while Téa watched Yugi and Joey duel each other. Mokuba had collected the red Queens, black eights, black sixes, red fives, black fives and the red twos when the nurse announced that Seto's family could see him.

"He's still unconscious," the nurse cautioned Mokuba.

Mokuba nodded his understanding and entered. As the nurse had said, Seto was unconscious. He was hooked up to machines that beeped much like those in the movies.

"Hey Seto," Mokuba said. "I thought I'd let you know I'm alright. Was someone in here before me?" He had just noticed flowers sitting on a small table near the Seto's bed. Someone had attached a note.

_If you want to know why you were attacked call this number when you're better: 777-257-4501._

_PS. The flowers we gave you are the Japanese Iris._

The note was typed as if to avoid telling anyone who had written it. The little note at the end seemed to indicate that more than one person was behind it. For a moment, Mokuba entertained the thought of finding a nurse and asking them about the flowers and note. But whoever had delivered them had plenty of time to get away as it was. A few more moments wouldn't hurt.

Mokuba moved a chair next to the bed and talked to his older brother.

* * *

Just across the street, a small girl sat with a huge banana split. In one hand, she held a sleek silver cell phone and searched through her contacts list. It didn't take long to find the person she was looking for.

"Yes?" The familiar voice, one whose accent had created many fangirls, made the girl relax.

"I've reached Domino City. Did you see the news?"

"Of course. Seto Kaiba is famous, for more reasons than one. Have they found Takaki yet?"

"Not yet. I suppose someone will find him when he starts to smell though." The girl smiled and took a bite of her ice cream. It wasn't nearly as good as a melon but it was still delicious. "Takaki was an idiot. The only reason he got Kaiba was because Kaiba misread Takaki's motives." She managed to fish out a large piece of banana.

"His enemies generally need him alive. If must inform him otherwise if he is to be of use to us."

The girl nodded. Her smile faded as her expression became serious. "Do you think we should do this? Kaiba's got an opportunity, a _life_, that we can never have. By telling him, we steal that chance away from him."

"It isn't our choice, Rio. Kaiba is too famous and because of that they would never leave him alone. By telling him, we increase the chances of his survival. Not only that, but we increase the chances of our own survival until we can be saved."

The girl, Rio, remained silent.

"If you prefer, I can come over and do it for you."

"No," Rio barely even moved her pigtails as she shook her head, "I said I'd do this. It just... doesn't feel right. Even if I know it's the best thing to do, I don't want to be the reason Kaiba must bloody his hands. He's going to be one more person whose unable to fight fate. But I'm not going to back out."

"I know you won't." Rio smiled at the almost-affection in the other person's voice. She hung up without saying good-bye or discussing future plans. Her lips curled into a smile as she dug into her food, as though the conversation had never happened.

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In case anyone is curious, you should be able to dial the number on the note (at least if you live in the USA, maybe in other countries as well). If you do, please tell me what it does. I want to be sure I wrote the right number. Also, I hope my explanation for why Takaki was able to defeat Seto so easily was satisfactory. In term of the gunshot wound, I did try to look up affects. What I got amounted to different guns, different placement of the wounds, and different people shooting add up to completely different effects.


End file.
